Laundry Land
by Diana-Mercury
Summary: At 3 in the morning, rather than sleeping, Annabeth Chase is hanging out with a stranger in laundry land.


**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians doesn't belong to me**

* * *

"You need to get some sleep, Annabeth," Thalia murmured, rubbing her eyes. She sat up off the bed, her hair standing up in several different directions.

Annabeth paused, her hand hovering above a shirt on the ground. For the past half an hour she had been blindly moving around the room in the dark, gathering all of their dirty clothes. She hadn't even realized her roommate was awake until she had leaned over and turned on the light.

She huffed. This was precisely why she'd wanted to get things done after her friend fell asleep. Thalia was constantly nagging her about getting sleep.

Annabeth didn't need sleep. She had been steadily functioning on coffee and five hour energy pills for the past week. Maybe it was the stress, but every time she would lay down, her mind would go on overdrive, making it impossible to fall asleep.

"Sure Thals. But first, I need to do laundry. I'm doing yours too, so you're welcome." Before Thalia could respond, Annabeth grabbed the laundry basket and rushed out of the room. She wasn't in the mood for Thalia's lecture.

Going down to the laundry room, she sighed when she realized all the machines were taken. Clearly Annabeth wasn't the only student in the dorms with a screwed up sleep schedule.

Speaking of students, there were about six of them in the room, all within various stages of sleep. One of them even lay across several washing machines, completely indifferent to the fact that his body was being shaken around.

Sighing, she leaned against a wall, closing her eyes for a few moments. She knew there was no chance of actually falling asleep, but it was at least slightly relaxing. But within seconds her mind was racing through thoughts and ideas. This usually always happened- and when it did, it was nearly impossible to calm down until she had done something productive. And normally she would be okay with it. But today, she was so close to being calm, it was really irritating for her mind to just automatically turn up a few notches like that.

That was normally the reason why she couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes to rest, it was almost as if her brain was afraid she was dying or something, and tried to confirm she was awake by sending a flood of thoughts. Every time she'd get anywhere close to the brink of sleep, her mind would start think about anything, everything. Basically things that didn't matter. She figured it was to distract her. But whenever she did pass out from enervation, she'd have a restless sleep that almost always made her wish she had just stayed awake in the first place.

Her eyes flew open at the undeniable sound of a click as one of the washers came to a stop. Slowly standing up, she quickly looked around to make sure that no one else had woke up. She took the sopping clothes out, but made sure to dump them in a laundry basket and pushed it to the side.

Looking around again, Annabeth realized her predicament. The boy a couple of rows back was staring right at her, eyes flicking down to the machine. He stood as if he was ready to run, a big blue laundry bag in his hand. This wouldn't have been a problem if her own laundry bag wasn't a few feet away. She was positive that the second she turned around, he would steal the machine from her.

Naturally, being the competitive person she was, Annabeth wasn't going to let him take it. They had a silent standoff, neither of them had moved an inch.

After a few moments, she realized that the bastard was smirking. "You know, I'm used to this kind of attention from pretty girls. I can do this all night." The bastard even had the audacity to wink at her.

She scoffed, crossing her arms and leaning on her hip. It wasn't that hard to believe- the fact that he had girls staring at him all the time. He _was_ handsome; he radiated confidence, and you could practically drown in those gorgeous sea green eyes.

But Annabeth wasn't swooning. No. She was determined to wash her and her roommate's laundry. And she would be damned if this cocky idiot got in the way of that.

Realizing that he had distracted her, the ridiculously attractive stranger shuffled up a few feet. Annabeth narrowed her eyes and stepped back a little.

Then she turned around and lunged for the bag. After snatching it up, she spun around and crawled back as quickly as she could. Putting her hand down on the washing machine to claim it, he did the same. It was an undoubted tie.

He grinned. "How about this: I'll go on a date with you if you let me wash my clothes first." Someone certainly had an inflated ego.

She smiled back flirtatiously, standing up and leaning closer to his face. "That," Annabeth whispered in his ear "is a great idea." He was now leaning in too, probably expecting something. "Except, I think I'll pass."

Catching him off guard, she pushed him away a little and used the few seconds she had to start throwing clothes in. After recovering, he started doing the same, ignoring her yell in frustration.

Annabeth yanked one of his shirts out of his hands and threw it across the room. And that's how the laundry war started. They started throwing their clothes at each other, the washing machine long since forgotten.

Several people had woken up, either yelling at them to shut up or just rolling their eyes and exiting the room.

Eventually they had calmed down enough to catch their breaths, red-faced from laughing so hard. While, yes, she had just had a completely childish battle with a stranger, it was also the most fun she'd had in a long time. Though, it really shouldn't have been fun. They'd literally just run around the room, ducking behind machines and throwing dirty laundry.

They sat down side-by-side, staring at the washing machine.

The raven-haired boy looked down at her, curiosity and mischief glinting in his eyes. "What's your name?" His arm snaked its way across her shoulder, and he waited to see if she would object. But she didn't. While he was taller and had at least 30 pounds on her, she felt confident enough that she could kick his ass if he tried anything.

She looked back at him, finding no reason not to tell him. "Annabeth. Why?"

He gave her a lopsided smile, showing off an adorable dimple. "Well, I need to know a girl's name before I go on a date with her, don't I?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "I'm Percy, by the way."

"Oh? I don't think I remember agreeing to go on a date with you." She smiled back at him. She had to admit that her opinion on him had changed. While, yes, he probably was a skirt chaser, it was obvious that he had a childish, soft side.

Percy nodded and stood up, gesturing towards the washing machine. "I'll let you use the machine if you go on a date with me."

Confused, she studied him. "Why? You don't know me. We've literally only met like half an hour ago."

He shrugged, his air of confidence once again resurfacing. "You're already one of the most interesting people I've met if you're willing to fight a stranger for a washing machine. Well, it clearly shows you're competitive, and maybe a little bored. You probably have nothing better to do. So how about a date?"

She stared at him, wondering what his angle was. It was quite obvious that he liked to sleep around, and judging by his statement earlier, he never had a shortage of female attention. But he was right. She didn't have anything better to do. It didn't matter if he wasn't really interested in her- it wasn't as if she was head over heels. It wouldn't be a big deal.

Noticing her slight reluctance, he grinned and played with a curl that had fallen in her face. "And plus, I'm loving the hairdo. I think that and the outfit really won me over."

Annabeth laughed. Earlier, after realizing sleep was fruitless, she had wandered around the room to find any relatively clean clothes. Which just happened to be a pair of Thalia's sweatpants and a little orphan Annie t-shirt that Thalia had gotten her as a joke a few years ago accompanied with flip flops, of course. This wouldn't have been a problem if a) Thalia didn't write Green Day lyrics, draw on, or make holes in the sweatpants whenever she got bored and b) if the shirt actually fit like it had when she was 13. And her hair was a mass of blonde curls, and even if she put it up, several curls had escaped and fell in her face or tickled her neck.

She shrugged. "How about we compromise: you do both of our laundry, and I'll go on a date with you." She knew there wasn't really anything in it for him considering he wasn't _dying_ to go on a date with her. But it didn't hurt to try. The idea of a date was actually starting to intrigue her, so she figured she might as well use the opportunity to have fun with someone as captivating as Percy _and_ get her laundry done for her.

But, completely unexpected, Percy grinned and nodded. The grin wasn't unexpected- he had smiled nonstop since they'd started talking- but it was the fact that he actually agreed to do it.

After loading some of her clothes in, Percy grabbed her and hoisted her on top of the washing machine, pulling himself up to sit cross legged next to her. He snatched something from the top of his laundry pile. Which just happened to be a pair of Nemo boxers.

Ears tinged pink, Percy ignored her laughter and stood up, holding his arms out for balance. He stuck the boxers on his head, yelling as loud as he could, "I declare myself the king of laundry land!" Reaching down a hand, he pulled her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "And this is my gorgeous queen!"

"Shut up, you idiot! It's freaking 4 in the morning!" someone yelled. Percy turned around and stuck his tongue out. "Yeah? So why the hell are you in the laundry room when it's _so_ late and you could be sleeping in your comfy bed? Leave my territory or be executed, peasant!" The guy stood up and walked out of the room, grumbling about Percy's idiocy.

"You're like a child." She mumbled, and he turned and nuzzled her cheek. "I like you," was his simply response.

After his declaration of ownership over laundry land, they settled back down on the top of the machine, Percy putting his arm around her again. They stared talking about nothing really important. She leaned on his shoulder, calmed by the whirring of the washing machine beneath her.

And then- out of nowhere- her fatigue ambushed her and she fell into a light but peaceful sleep.

* * *

When she woke up, maybe an hour or two later, she realized Percy had left. He had wedged a few folded clothes under her neck as a makeshift pillow. Her clothes were back in the bag, all of them washed and dried. She picked up a torn piece of paper off of the bag, and smiled when she read it.

 _After you fell asleep I finished your laundry for you. This was an awesome date, but I'd actually like to have a real one. My room number is 316. Why don't you stop by tomorrow night?_

 _-your laundry king,_

 _Percy :)_

It had taken her a while to read, because of his horrible writing. But it was still a sweet gesture on his part. He had written his number on the back, and she held onto the piece of paper tightly as she gathered up all of her clothes.

As she was leaving, she rolled her eyes at the thought of having a date with a gorgeous but maybe slightly insane guy that acts like a child. But she couldn't find it in herself to regret it. He was entrancing, in a way. He was so completely random that he had Annabeth wondering where they were going on their date.

The fact that she had met this utter stranger in the most random places was what she couldn't quite wrap her head around. Who gets a date in the laundry room while literally looking like a hot mess?

Maybe she needed to do her laundry more often.

* * *

 **A/N: I can't believe I literally just made a story about strangers playing in each other's laundry. I made a story about laundry! Maybe I just need some sleep...**


End file.
